Longarm and the Stagecoach Robbers Read online

  Longarm hustled up to his room and stripped off his clothing.

  Chapter 33

  Monday morning before dawn Longarm was back at the express company, busy building the hitch by the light of a lantern that was nearly out of oil so he had to work quickly before it sputtered out.

  He looked up to see Will Carver working just as quickly on the other side of the rig. Will did not speak to him, very pointedly refraining from so much as acknowledging that Longarm existed. Longarm understood and took no offense. Will was still having trouble coming to grips with the fact that his mother was a sexual human being. And even more trouble accepting that Longarm was fucking her.

  Between them they made short work of the routine tasks and had the day’s team in place before the sun broached the horizon.

  Longarm climbed up to the driving box and took the coach around to the front. Will grunted once but that was as close as he came to speech. He went inside when Longarm took the rig. He did not show himself to Longarm again that morning.

  Charlise came out looking like she had not slept in two days. And perhaps she had not. Her face was puffy from crying, and her hair was unkept. Neither was at all like her. Apparently, Longarm guessed, she and Will were still having their difficulties. Longarm did not envy either one of them.

  “I have some freight to go but no passengers this morning,” she said.

  At least Charlie was speaking to him, Longarm thought. When he climbed down to load the packages consigned to Bailey and one to Guffey as well, Charlie stepped close to him and took him by the arm.

  “Tonight,” she said. “Come to supper, please.”

  “All right.”

  “You can stay the night if you like.”

  Longarm looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

  “He doesn’t like it, but I think he is beginning to understand,” she said.

  “Will he be at supper, too?”

  “I don’t know. I invited him. And I told him you would be there.”

  “Did you say I’d be staying after?” Longarm asked.

  Charlie nodded. “I did. He didn’t like that, but I was telling him, not asking his permission. I think he understands that much anyway.”

  “All right. I’ll be there. I hope Will joins us.”

  “It’s his choice.”

  Longarm gave Charlie a kiss then set in to loading the packages.

  Chapter 34

  He made the deliveries, changed horses at Lake George, picked up five passengers in Hartsel, and arrived back in Fairplay well before dark.

  Will Carver was there waiting to help break the hitch and tend to the horses. He again worked without speaking to Longarm.

  When they were done, Longarm went back to the Pickens House to wash and change out of the dusty clothes he had worn on the road. He paused long enough to have a smoke before joining Charlie and her aversion to smoking then returned to the Carver office and Charlie’s living quarters in the back.

  Charlie greeted him with a kiss and a glass of whiskey.

  “My two favorite things,” he told her in response. Looking over Charlie’s shoulder, he asked, “Is he here?”

  Charlie shook her head. “No, but he promised me that he will be. If you don’t mind, we should wait dinner for him. I have the table set for three and, well, I would just like to wait a little while. I know he will come.”

  “Of course we can wait,” Longarm said. “But I tell you what. I’d like t’ have another o’ those kisses and maybe another whiskey, too. Can you manage that?”

  Charlie smiled and pressed herself against him, delivering a kiss that nearly sucked his tongue out of his mouth. And did get a good bit of it into her mouth.

  “After dinner,” she promised, her voice husky with desire.

  Then she plucked his glass out of his hand and went to refill it.

  Charlie stepped into her kitchen—or what passed for one in the living quarters—and began fussing with whatever was in the pot, so Longarm took his whiskey out to the front porch, where he could smoke without annoying the lady.

  He was on his second cigar and his belly was rumbling with hunger when Charlie came outside. She sniffed the air and moved around to the upwind side of him.

  “This isn’t like Will,” she said. “He promised, and Will always keeps his word. I don’t know what could be keeping him. He is so late now that our dinner is ruined. It won’t be fit to eat.”

  Longarm smiled and took her hand. “Darlin’, you would be amazed at some of the stuff I’ve had to eat, like when I’m trailin’ somebody and don’t have no chance to buy proper grub. Proves I can eat ’most anything, so don’t you be worrying about that. D’you have any idea what could’ve held him up this long?”

  “No, I really don’t. Custis, would you . . . I hate to ask you this, but could you stop at Maybelle’s, um, house? He might be there.”

  “Why would you think that, if you don’t mind me askin’?” Longarm said.

  “He took some money from the box this morning, and I know that his rent is not due. That usually means he intends to visit the girls at Maybelle’s,” she said.

  Longarm laughed. “You know the boy better’n he realizes, don’t you?”

  “I’m his mother, Custis. Of course I know him better than anyone.” She smiled. “Including himself. Would you mind going over there?”

  “Sure, no problem,” he said, standing and stretching.

  “One thing, though,” Charlie said.

  “Mmm?”

  “Don’t you dare get involved with those girls.”

  Longarm gave her a lingering kiss and said, “Not a chance. Not with what I got waitin’ for me back here tonight.” He gave her butt a quick squeeze and stepped down off the porch to head for Maybelle’s house of ill repute.

  Chapter 35

  House of ill repute might be what a whorehouse was called in polite company, but that reputation did not curb their popularity. This one was certainly popular. When Longarm got there, Maybelle’s was packed. Miners, businessmen, and cowhands crowded the place, everyone trying to talk at once, and the girls snatched up and sent back to their rooms—not alone—as soon as they set foot into the parlor.

  “Marshal Long. How nice to see you in our happy home,” a painted older woman, presumably Maybelle herself, said when Longarm walked in. He was not at all surprised that the woman knew who he was. A woman in this business would make it her business to know everything that went on around her.

  “My pleasure,” he said, tipping his hat and bowing slightly. “Though I have t’ admit that I’m here on business, not pleasure.”

  She laughed. “I am very sorry to hear that, Marshal. I was going to recommend one of our nicest girls for you. If you change your mind, I can even get you in to see her ahead of the crowd.”

  “You’re very kind. Perhaps another time, eh? In the meantime, have you seen young Will Carver this evening?”

  “Will? No, he hasn’t been in today.”

  “I know he planned to visit you,” Longarm said. “Does he have a favorite girl? She might know something.”

  “No favorite. Will plays the field. He spreads himself around mostly. But two of his friends are here. Would you like for me to introduce them?”

  “I’d like that very much,” Longarm said.

  “Would you like a drink while I go find them?” the old bawd offered.

  “No, but thank you for the offer.”

  “Wait here. I won’t be but a minute.” She turned and disappeared into the mass of horny men in her parlor, leaving Longarm to wait in the foyer.

  Good to her word, the woman returned in only a few minutes. She had a thin young man of about Will’s age with her. He had pale hair, already receding despite his youth. He looked like a clerk of some sort but might have been anyone or anything for all Longarm knew.

/>   “Marshal Long, this is Jesse Moore. Another of Will’s friends, Jimmy Cranston, is here this evening but at the moment he is, um, occupied with my Abigail. Do you want me to bring him out anyway?”

  Longarm shook his head. “I don’t imagine that will be necessary, but thank you.” He turned to the young man with Maybelle and said, “I’m looking for Will Carver. His mother is worried about him and so am I. Do you know where he is?”

  Moore said, “No, sir. Will was supposed to meet us here this afternoon. He never showed up. We’re both kinda worried about him, but we thought he went over to his mother’s place early. He said something about having supper with her. He usually does that. So we just assumed he was over there when he didn’t show here.”

  “No, I’ve been over there waiting for him with her. Any idea where he might be?” Longarm said.

  “No, sir, I don’t,” Moore said.

  “You know where he lives, don’t you?”

  “Yes, sir, of course.”

  “Would you show me, please?”

  Moore glanced back toward the parlor. Then he sighed and said, “I was next in line to get me a girl.”

  Longarm motioned to Maybelle, who was hovering in the doorway to the parlor and pretending not to listen. Perhaps she really was ignoring the conversation.

  “Excuse me, but Jesse here is next in line for a girl, an’ I’m wanting him to help me with something. If I take him away for a few minutes, can you see that he gets some extra special service when he gets back, please.”

  “I can do that for you, Marshal.” She looked at Jesse and smiled. “Help the marshal and I’ll see that you get double time with Sandi, Jesse.”

  The boy’s eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets, and Longarm guessed that Sandi was someone rare and special. Certainly Jesse seemed pleased by the prospect. The bulge at the front of his trousers attested to that.

  “Let’s go, Marshal,” he said and headed for the door.

  Chapter 36

  Will Carver lived in a tiny shack on the north edge of Fairplay, set amid a half-dozen more just like it, all of them probably owned by the same man, or corporation, and almost certainly built at the same time to the same design.

  From Maybelle’s, it was only about a two-minute walk. Convenient, Longarm thought, much more so than the several other whorehouses that he knew about in or near the town.

  “This one,” Moore said, pointing.

  Will’s friend took the flagstone steps leading up to the door and reached for the doorknob. He barely touched the knob when he jerked back as if the metal were burning hot.

  “What’s the matter?” Longarm asked.

  “I heard . . . I thought I heard something . . . something inside,” Moore said.

  “Move aside an’ let me see,” Longarm told the young man. He shouldered past Moore and took hold of the brass knob.

  There was nothing wrong with the doorknob, but Longarm, too, heard something inside. And unlike Jesse, Longarm knew what it was.

  Someone in there was moaning in pain.

  Longarm tried the door but it was locked. He studied the cheap lock for a moment, then took out his pocketknife and opened the sturdy main blade. He slipped that between the door and the frame and made contact with the lock bar.

  Pressing forward to give the tip of the blade some purchase on the cheap steel of the lock, he prised the bar sideways until it cleared the mortise. The door swung open easily after that.

  The room inside was dark but the moaning continued to come from it. Longarm reached into his vest pocket for a match and snapped it aflame with his thumbnail.

  He strode forward, found a lamp in the middle of a small table, and lit it. Lamplight flooded the tiny room to disclose Will Carver, his face a pulped mass of blood, lying on the floor in front of the fireplace.

  Jesse Moore rushed past Longarm and dropped to his knees beside his friend.

  “Let’s get him on the bed, Jesse. Help me,” Longarm said. “An’ be careful t’ lift him easy. We don’t know if there’s any bones broke.”

  Between them, Jesse and Longarm were able to lift Will off the floor and deposit him onto his cot.

  Someone, Longarm saw, had beaten the shit out of Will. Literally. It stank. But after a beating like Will had received, Longarm did not really blame him for that.

  “Jesse, do me a favor. Go fetch Will’s mother. She’ll want t’ be the one to tend him, I think.”

  “Yes, sir. Right away.” Jesse raced off into the night, and Longarm bent close to Will in order to hear anything young Carver had to say.

  Chapter 37

  Charlise threw herself into action much as Longarm had expected she would. There was no better nurse than one’s own mother, he thought as he watched Charlie soothe and clean and salve her son.

  Longarm left the boy to his mother and buttonholed Jesse Moore before he could escape into the night. Jesse was obviously uncomfortable and itching to get away.

  “Not so fast, son,” Longarm said, his voice low and calm. “I got something t’ ask you.”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “D’you know two fellows named Ron and Craig? Who would they be?” Longarm asked.

  “I know them. I don’t much like them, but I know them. Ron is Ron Javit, or maybe it’s Jabit. I’m not sure about that. Craig would be Craig Willborne. The two of them run together.”

  “Tell me about them,” Longarm ordered, holding on to Jesse’s upper arm to keep him from sidling away.

  Jesse shrugged. “They’re just . . . fellows. They live in town here. I see them a lot at Maybelle’s. Ron is a carpenter. Works on houses and shoring timbers in the mines, things like that. Craig works for Dayson’s Feed and Seed. They, well, it’s obvious what they sell. Like I said, the two of them run together. Are they the ones that beat Will?”

  Longarm nodded. “They are. Will was able to tell me. Any idea why they’d go and do a thing like that?”

  “I know there was some bad blood between them. Last payday there was a falling-out, I suppose you’d say. One of the whores at Maybelle’s is a girl who calls herself Sweetie. She’s sweet on Will. She went to him. Ron claimed he was next in line for her. He likes her a lot, you see. Him and Will got into a shouting match over her, and she refused to go with Ron. She insisted she was going with Will next or with nobody at all. And she did. She took Will upstairs and spent a lot of time with him there. Ron didn’t like that at all but he didn’t actually do anything about it. Not at Maybelle’s. Anybody who causes trouble there, she’ll post them, won’t let them back in for a month. One man she actually banished permanent. Nobody wants to risk that, so things are generally pretty orderly at Maybelle’s. That’s all I know, Marshal. Can I go now. Please?”

  Longarm nodded and let go of the young man. Jesse hurried away while he had the chance.

  Charlie seemed to have things under control. She had washed the blood off Will, and he did not look as bad now as he had to begin with. Longarm did not think Will’s injuries were the sort that would require the doctor.

  “If you’ll excuse me, there’s something I got t’ do,” he said, not at all sure that Charlie heard. She was concentrating completely on her injured son. Longarm touched the brim of his Stetson to her regardless, then slipped out into the cool of the evening.

  Chapter 38

  “Nice to see you again, Marshal,” Maybelle said. “What can I do for you?”

  “I’m looking for a couple fellows, ma’am,” Longarm said, touching the brim of his Stetson. “Fellows name of Ron Javit and Craig Willborne. Do they happen t’ be here tonight?”

  “That would be Ronny Jabit and Craig Willborne. I know them, of course, but they haven’t been in this evening. I haven’t seen them for several days,” the old madam said.

  “Any idea where I might find the two of ’em?” Longarm asked.

  �
��Just a minute, Marshal.” Maybelle turned and motioned to a young woman, who hurried to join them. The girl was thin and had acne marring a pouty face. At the moment she was wearing a professionally insincere smile.

  “Yes’m.” She fluttered her eyelashes at Longarm, obviously taking him for a customer.

  “Find Pansy and tell her I want to see her,” Maybelle said.

  The smile disappeared the moment she knew the tall, handsome gentleman was not a customer who wanted her. “Yes’m,” she repeated, then turned and left but at a much slower pace than before.

  The girl went into the crowded parlor. Shortly afterward a tall girl wearing a pink kimono came out. “You wanted to see me, ma’am?”

  “Ronny Jabit and Craig Willborne. Have you seen them lately?”

  “Last Saturday night, I think,” the girl said.

  “Do you know where they might be this evening?” Maybelle asked.

  “I know they like to do their drinking in the loft over at Dayson’s. Craig has a key to let them in. They like to buy a bottle and carry it up into the hay loft. It’s private. I think . . .” She shot a look toward Longarm.

  “It’s all right,” Maybelle said. “Say whatever you were thinking.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I think they might bugger each other up there when they can’t afford to come here,” Pansy said. “I don’t know that, mind. But it’s what I think.”

  “Thank you, dear. You can go now.”

  The girl turned and went back to the customers in the parlor. Maybelle waited until she was gone, then said to Longarm, “Is there anything else I can help you with, Marshal?”

  “No. You’ve been a big help, an’ I thank you.” He smiled and added, “I guess there is one more thing after all. Where can I find Dayson’s feed store?”

  Chapter 39

  Dayson’s Feed and Seed was on the southeast side of town. Longarm found it with no problem. It appeared to be dark inside, but . . .